Implementing the Dining for Justice OPTIONAL $1 donation

Community Kitchens Window Sticker/Poster and Postcards

Please apply your Community Kitchens window sticker or poster in a visible space near your main entrance.  The window sticker lets your customers know that you are a Community Kitchens restaurant partner.  Our postcard flyer can be provided to guests with their check and contains a QR code linking to the Community Kitchens website for those who want more information

Staff Training

Some of your customers will have questions about Community Kitchens.  Your staff should be ready with some basic information, and they can also provide our CK postcard to direct the customer to the Community Kitchens website for more information.  Your service staff should know the following:

Community Kitchens is a nonprofit and restaurant collective that provides free meals to community groups that feed people in Oakland. The meals go to people who don’t have access to hot, nutritious meals every day:  People living in the streets, people who are shut in, people who are just scraping by financially.  100% of your donation goes to Community Kitchens, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.  You can learn more information about Community Kitchens from this postcard.

Programing Your Point-of-Sale System 

Create a $1 menu item in your POS called “Community Kitchens Food Relief.” Do not apply sales tax to this item. When a customer requests to add a $1 donation, your server or cashier can add this item to the check.

Sales Tax

Sales taxes are not applied to optional fees, like written in tips or the optional $1 donation.

Accounting for $1 Donation

This is a voluntary donation from the customer to Community Kitchens, no revenue needs to be recognized by the restaurant.

Making payments into Community Kitchens

Most POS systems will show the donation on your monthly sales report, as a total of all the “donation” menu itemas sold.  Please enclose a POS report showing the month’s donation revenues with your remittance.  

A monthly remittance form will be provided and details on where to submit payments.  Surcharge revenues are payable into Community Kitchens monthly by the 24th day of the following month.  We timed the payment with sales tax payments.